Project Almanac – Film Review

Posted on 28th February 20156th March 2015 by

Director: Dean Israelite

Starring: Jonny Weston, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Sam Lerner, Allan Evangelista and Virginia Gardner

Release Date: Out Now

When I first saw the trailer for Project Almanac, I thought to myself “Hey, this looks like it could be a rather interesting and different take on time travel and how time machines work” …then I found out it was produced by Michael Bay and all of my hopes just withered away and died.
Of course, Project Almanac isn’t automatically a bad film just because Michael Bay is involved. That just happens to be part of it. Although the first act is actually watchable and semi-interesting, it suffers from annoying, one dimensional characters and a meaningless plot that is filled with many flaws and wraps up with a very unsatisfying conclusion.

The film is about a 17 year old high school student, David Raskin (Weston), who has been admitted into MIT. Sadly, he is unable to attend as he can’t afford the tuition. Upon learning that his mother plans to sell their house in order to pay for college, David goes to his sister Christina (Gardner) and two friends Adam (Evangelista) and Quinn (Lerner) for guidance.

Their plan is to search through the belongings of his father, who was an inventor before he died in a car crash during David’s 7th birthday party, in the hopes that they might find something of merit to sell so that David can get a scholarship. It’s at this point in time that David and his sister find their father’s old camcorder and decide to have a nostalgia trip through David’s 7^th birthday party. Everything appears to be all smiles and happy memories until David notices something strange in the background…himself from the present day!

Confused as to how he appeared in the past, David and his friends lob theories about and try to find out what the hell is going on. This ultimately leads them to discovering a time machine created by David’s father, which they naturally try to get working again with predictable results.

A lot of confusing and stupid things happen after this point, including the token Micheal Bay sexism but a surprising lack of explosions… unless you include the way they travel back in time as explosive, which I would. How time travel actually works in this film is glossed over, without nary a flux capacitor in sight, and it jars noticeably.

The gang always ensure that they time-travel together, and always stay hidden, or at least discreet… and of course, when you want to stay out of the limelight, the first thing you want to do is enter the lottery, win a fortune and get your picture taken for the local newspaper. That scene was a huge annoyance to me, because I’m quite certain that 17 year olds can’t enter the lottery over in America, let alone win it…

Time Travel films are usually tough to follow; this one isn’t tough. It’s just Annoying. The use of time travel and found footage combined is disorientating and very hard to enjoy. The fact that the kids themselves are so unlikable often make it unbearable.
It’s not without the occasional merit though, even if these do come in the form of cheap references. I did enjoy it when time travel films such as Timecop and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure/Bogus Journey got a mention.

Though maybe unintentional, I also enjoyed David having some form of mental breakdown when something bad happens to his crush, Jessie (Black-D’Elia). This is where the primary enjoyment comes from in this film: the points where we see these characters suffering. If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about this film, nothing will. And if you’re a masochist, you might enjoy pinpointing the many, many inconsistencies the film has to offer.